When you walk out of a tiny shop — where the shelves are lined with dainty glass vials — on Mannady Road, you smell like a flower bouquet.

And when the shop is run by a veteran perfumer, who loves to please his customers, the blend is unimaginable.

N. Fakhruddin Attarwala’s shop is perhaps one of the few places in the city where you can still get perfumes in their raw form — without alcohol or gas. “It is quite rare to see such perfumes being sold these days. Earlier, people would sell tiny bottles of perfumes with gold-coloured caps at fairs and marketplaces, enticing people with the aromas. They were not just sellers but perfumers who learnt the trade with great difficulty,” recalls D.V. Sainath Guptha, a perfumer himself, who prepares scents only for self consumption.

Several old areas, including Periamet, Royapettah and Triplicane, have such perfume shops but the number of patrons seems to be thinning with most people preferring branded products.

Though one connect such shops with traditional fragrances like  attar ,  marikolundhu  and  javvaadhu,the variety available is surprising. Mr. Attarwala, who has created some 50 fragrances in his 45 years as a perfumer, says some fragrances require up to 200 ingredients.

“The foodie note is the in-thing now, with melons, strawberry and lime vying for favour. One fragrance can contain 40-60 ingredients and take at least two years to perfect. It is a laborious process. No doubt perfumery requires knowledge of chemistry but it should be in your heart. It is only recently chemicals are being used in perfumes. Previously, it used to be just natural oils,” says Mr. Attarwala, whose home is where he creates his magic.

Whatever perfume is made, sandalwood is the basic requirement along with ylang ylang oil and musk oil. These perfumes must be diluted with four parts of water each time they are used.

“The cost of the perfume depends on its quality and not quantity. You can get the same quantity of jasmine perfume for Rs. 30 and Rs. 500,” he explains, as his customers patiently wait their turn to let their olfactory senses decide what they shou ld buy.

Gone are the days of tiny vials of scented natural oils withgold-coloured caps

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by Deepa H. Ramakrishnan / February 11th, 2015